Local construction company renovates Milpitas senior's house

XL Construction employees prepare a back yard on Bliss Drive before mulch is spread, in addition to renovating a patio and repairing the roof.
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Photo by Jubil Mathew
)

David Alvarez paints the outside of a Bliss Drive senior citizen's house Saturday as part of Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley.
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Photo by Jubil Mathew
)

XL Construction of Milpitas, as part of Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley's community service events, renovated and repaired longtime resident Shirley Duea's house on Bliss Drive on Saturday -- free -- thanks to volunteers and material donations from the company.

Thirty volunteers from XL Construction and three volunteers from the company's painting contractor replaced the rain gutters around Duea's house, cleaned and treated the patio and fence surrounding the house, landscaped the front and back yards, and replaced rotting parts of the roof, roof shingles, a side garage door, and exterior and ceiling lights, among other tasks.

Duea, 78, has been living alone for the last four years since her life partner passed away, in the home that he purchased for her when she moved to Milpitas 15 years ago. Duea came from Honolulu, Hawaii during World War II and worked for Wells Fargo for 30 years before being laid off.

Duea said she saw an advertisement in the Milpitas Post for residents to submit applications for home renovations through nonprofit Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley.

"I feel like I was very blessed by the Lord, I am sure there were so many applicants that applied for remodeling and I was chosen," Duea said.

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Tom Lake, the project engineer from XL Construction, said he visited Duea's home three times to see what work needed to be done, and what was plausible to get done in one day, as well as the amount and type of materials that would be needed. He also prioritized the 23-item list of projects based on what Duea needed done most, all which was completed Saturday.

"Some of the more important ones were the safety issues, she is a 78-year-old woman, and we wanted to make sure that she could get in and get out," Lake said.

He prioritized the tasks and assigned one volunteer to be captain of that task based on their work skill specialties, and then assigned volunteers to each of those projects, most of which were exterior projects.

"We did some landscaping work, trimmed up all her bushes ... we put a bunch of brown mulch around her landscaping and in the back yard we put brown mulch and we stained all her back patio and fence, and it looked really nice," Lake said. "And then we painted the entire house, installed all new light fixtures, with motion sensors for the front door and patio area, and installed a new fence gate, the old one was scraping the concrete every time it was opened ... all the roof shingles were replaced because they would leak water inside ... and cause puddles in her front yard, which were a hazard."

XL Construction workers stain fences.
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Photo by Jubil Mathew
)

Lake said prior to the rebuild day, he had the roofing contractors and some of his carpenters go in and start on the roof and fence work to help prepare for Saturday, which he said went really well.

"I've never felt this happy and successful for putting something together and leading it ... and at the end of the day Shirley was just thrilled and excited, and very appreciative and thankful, she didn't take the work we did for granted. She was really grateful and ... and it just made the whole thing complete to see how happy she was," Lake said.

Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley brings volunteers and communities together to improve the homes and lives of low-income homeowners in need. On Saturday the organization completed 21 similar projects in Silicon Valley through the work of 800 volunteers.

Duea was thrilled to be the beneficiary of volunteer efforts in Milpitas.

"Oh I think that Jesus Christ blessed me for Easter with wonderful people, giving me folk and faith in the future and this rebuilding company has given me such joy and bliss," Duea said. "I would have been very happy if they just painted my house, and I would have been just happy with that, but they did more than I asked from them. They painted the outside of my house, and they had about 15 people doing all my gardening for me and they did the most beautiful landscaping. And plus this is something I didn't expect, they gave me a brand new couch for my patio, and lots of cushions and three cactus plants ... they just made me so happy."

"I am making social security, less than $900 a month, but even if you are in poverty level, and you give, you will receive," added Duea, who also has anemia, high blood pressure and kidney problems. "What the builders did, really was a gift from the Lord."